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Friday, 12 August 2016

Movie review: Suicide Squad

If you've been reading this blog for long enough, you've realized that I'm a Marvel girl. I will not shut up about Spider-Man, I think Captain America is the best person ever while I basically want to be Black Widow and/or Agent Carter. Despite the fact that I'm indifferent to DC, I actually kind of enjoyed Suicide Squad. In this rebooted DC universe, a government agent (Amanda Waller) is assembling the worst of the worst criminals to create a task force to fight the battles they never could. (Sorry, I just can't not quote The Avengers here.) These criminals include Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Killer Croc, Captain Boomerang and Diablo. Once a crazy super villain gets on the loose, they're sent to save the world and stuff. As you do.

I think the characters were what made the movie for me. For a bunch of murderous criminals, they were really relatable (ok, maybe just somewhat (I'm not a murderer please don't arrest me)) and sympathetic, and the main characters got a good dose of backstory that made me cheer for them more than I've ever cheered for Batman or Superman. (Dear Superman, IT'S ALRIGHT TO SMILE.) They were funny and had a great relationship with the other members of the team, which always made things interesting. Deadshot had THE BEST relationship with his daughter, while Harley Quinn was weird and broken and totally insane and I loved her. She reminded me of a rag doll that had been left on the curb, forgotten and abandoned and in dire need of some stitches. Deadshot and Harley Quinn totally carried the movie.The tone of the film really complimented the characters. It was weird and twisted and creepy, and the combination of the pink, blue and green with DC's usual black really made it stand out from the rest of the (stupid) movies DC has made in the past. And the soundtrack! It was just awesome, and totally fit the tone. *viciously stamps approval on tone*Despite the great tone and characters, I had some major issues with the movie. First of all, let's talk about the female characters here. There were four major female characters (Katana, Amanda Waller, Enchantress and Harley Quinn), which is actually pretty good for a superhero movie (where there's usually four or five men to one woman). However, only one woman was fully clothed throughout the entire movie. WHY IS IS SO HARD FOR FEMALES IN A SUPERHERO MOVIE TO WEAR CLOTHES?!?!?! It is not that hard. It's called pants and a t-shirt. Enchantress was wearing a metal bikini. No. No. Just. NO. Katana wore a sports bra thingy, at least. Harley Quinn wasn't wearing pants, and she had three inch heels. Do you have any idea how difficult it would be to save the world in underwear and three inch heels? Think of the wedgies, for goodness sakes. It's stupid, that's what it is. It's stupid and sexist and it hurts me so deeply that the creators of this film didn't care enough about females characters to give them some worth beyond their bodies. If that's what it's like to be a female in films, I don't want to even think about what people of colour must deal with. All the men were covered. What's the excuse?

Other random issues: The bad guy did not do it for me at all. It was evil and SO weird and it totally alienated me from the film. And can someone explain the Harley Quinn/Joker love story for me? A flow chart would be helpful, I think. Let's go from Point A (Harley Quinn is the Joker's psychiatrist) to Point B (Harley Quinn voluntarily jumps in a vat of acid for the Joker). Like what? And if you have to drag out a bunch of comic books to explain this, then the movie didn't do a good enough job. A character showed up, was given no explanation or backstory then was promptly killed for the shock effect. The plot was predictable, the storytelling weak and the plot holes gaping and shredded. There was none of the storytelling that made me fall in love with movies like Zootopia, How to Train Your Dragon or Civil War. There were problems with the movie, without a doubt. But the characters and the tone and the utter bizarreness of the movie made me feel like I walked away with at least having my money not totally wasted. Have you seen Suicide Squad? What did you think? Are you a Marvel or a DC person? Or are you one of those people who don't care either way?

6 comments:

THANK YOU! Why can't women wear clothes in a superhero movie? Hello! It doesn't make any sense at all for them to go running around in their underwear. The guys don't do it. NOBODY SHOULD DO IT! Gah. I agree 225% with what you said on that. Everything.

The characters do sound funny and interesting. It is kind of sad that the storyline made little sense though. I don't know. I might see it. Maybe. I've only seen a handful of DC movies and they've left me skeptical.

IT'S SO NOT FAIR. I think if any of the directors/costume designers/whoever had ever been in a real fight they'd know that it's completely ridiculous. I do jiu jitsu and I pretty much have to don a tank to come out of a training session in one piece. And I'm not saving the world. I JUST HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ON THIS SUBJECT AND I HATE IT.

The characters were pretty good, but thinking about it now the movie kinda felt like a video game? Like they ran around a mostly empty city fighting bigger and bigger bad guys until they came to the boss, and you got lots of different characters with different abilities and stuff. *shrugs* I'd say wait to rent it, especially if you're not a DC fan. Thanks for commenting, Ashley!

I'm not particularly particular, but I do tend to enjoy Marvel movies more (then again, I've seen more of them). Suicide Squad doesn't really appeal to me, so I'll probably watch it in a couple years when somebody else wants to watch it and it's free or cheap.

Amen on the clothing thing! I would love to dress up as a superheroine for Halloween one year, but it's nigh impossible to find an outfit that I would wear in public. Hollywood has forgotten that, to be "feminine" in dress, one does not have to reveal 80% of her skin. Gah. And the practicality to boot.

That's probably a good idea. I'm just really struggling to love the movies DC is putting out. They seem to be alright at best.

It's horrible! Scarlet Witch has a decent costume, but even in the movie she has a pretty decent amount of cleavage. WHY. NOT NECESSARY. And I love how you put that. "To be "feminine" in dress, one does not have to reveal 80% of her skin." I feel like printing that out and gluing it to Hollywood's face. Thanks for commenting, RM!

I haven't seen this movie (more of a Marvel girl *fist bump*), but my brothers saw it and told me about it. It does sound like the characters were the strongest part, which makes me kind of interested since I LOVE GOOD CHARRIES, but it also seemed like it would be really dark.

AND THE FEMALES WEARING NO CLOTHES THING. UGH. IT IS SO INFURIATING. LIKE, HOW IS THIS PRACTICAL, YOU WILL LITERALLY DIE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOTHING TO COVER YOU AND KEEP YOU FROM GETTING SHOT.

*fist bumps back* The characters were definitely the best part. Err, it wasn't *that* dark? I suppose it was darker than some superhero movies, but beyond the bad guy (*growls at the stupidity*) it wasn't that bad.

I AGREE. WHY?!?!?!? IT LITERALLY MAKES NO SENSE. I'M TELLING YOU, HARLEY QUINN IS DEAD. IT JUST MAKES ME

About Me

Hello there! My name's Victoria. I moved from Canada to Australia with my family in 2012, and since then I've been reading, writing, watching movies and stressing over exams. Oh, and going to the beach :)